This weekend we crowned our 2017 Guild Ball World Champion, Alex Botts. Firstly, allow us to congratulate Alex on a fantastic victory after many months of practice and hard work, well done! Today though, we’re already looking onward to 2018 and an even bigger and better Guild Ball World Championship!

Eight? Nah, SIXTEEN!

In both 2016 and 2017 the Guild Ball World Championship was an 8-Coach event meaning that very few countries have had their own National Championships to date. However, from 2018 onwards we will be expanding the Guild Ball World Championship to 16-Coaches. Obviously, this means that we have more National Championships to announce! Right now we can tell you that Belgium is confirmed as the first new Country to get a National Championship. We can also tell you that we are planning to add a second qualifying spot for both the USA and Canada.

More details will be announced about brand new National Championship events as we get them confirmed. We expect that the 2018 Guild Ball World Championship will take place at SteamCon UK, this will be confirmed as soon as we know for sure. For those who don’t know, here is a full list of the confirmed countries with National Championships so far:

Australia

Belgium

Canada (x2)

Germany

Republic of Ireland

Sweden

United Kingdom

United States of America (x2)

+ SteamCon Last Chance Qualifier

This means that there are still five more National Championships to be announced!

For those coaches who’re based in the USA and are curious to know how this will interact with the previous US Regional system, we will also shortly be announcing changes to that system. These changes will make the whole thing much simpler and inclusive of independent (non-convention affiliated) events!

The Growth of Guild Ball

At the end of the day, we’re all here because we love Guild Ball. We all want to see this game and its wonderful community continue to grow. At the same time, we want to see National Championships become highlight events in your gaming year. Therefore, we’re introducing the following rule that will apply to all existing and brand-new Guild Ball National Championships in 2018:

“The winner of a National Championship will receive complementary entry to SteamCon (UK) and an invitation to the World Championship. If the National Championship has at least 30 paid sign ups before the event takes place, Steamforged Games Ltd will also cover the SteamCon (UK) flight and hotel costs for the winner.”

This means that as soon as you see your National Championship announced, you need to get out there and support it! Push it in your local communities and help make your National Championship the biggest and the best it can be! Watch your community grow around it, and celebrate your Champion’s journey to the World Championship.